Eli Manning had a disastrous second quarter, and in doing so, put the New York Giants in a deep hole heading into the second half of their game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Manning threw a pair of second-quarter interceptions that allowed the Buccaneers to score a pair of touchdowns and take a surprising 17-6 lead with 6:19 left in the opening half, and threw another returned 60 yards for a touchdown by cornerback Eric Wright with 8 seconds left in the first half as the Buccaneers took a 24-13 lead at halftime.

Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman shocked the Giants and their crowd b y standing up to a blitz and delivering a perfect strike to wide receiver Vincent Jackson, who was working against cornerback Michael Coe, for a 29-yard touchdown pass on third down to give the Bucs a 10-6 lead.

Tampa got the ball in great field position on that drive when Manning underthrew a pass on the first offensive play of the second quarter. Bucs linebacker Mason Foster made a leaping interception at the Giants 28 for the first turnover of the game.

Manning overthrew Victor Cruz on a later third down, and it was intercepted and returned 40 yards by Brandon McDonald to set up a 5-yard touchdown run by rookie Doug Martin.

Manning pulled it back together on the next series, however, taking the team on an eight play, 80-yard drive before completing a 23-yard scoring strike to Hakeem Nicks with 1:54 left in the half to get the Giants back in the game, down 17-13. Andre Brown, listed as third string on the depth chart, ripped off a 23-yard run on the first play and added a 12-yard run to set up the touchdown pass.

The Giants lost right tackle David Diehl in the first quarter with a knee injury, Domenik Hixon on the first quarter with a concussion after a helmet-to-helmet hit by linebacker Mason Foster, starting running back Ahmad Bradshaw with a neck injury in the second quarter and fullback Henry Hynoski after taking a body-block tackle to the knees in the second quarter. Diehl, Hixon and Bradshaw were listed as out for the game, but there was no update on Hynoski by halftime.